SB Nation unveiled its 2018 College Football Teams of Year yesterday and the following New England teams earned some love: University of Maine, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, MIT, University of New Haven and Salve Regina.

Frozen Fenway will return in January 2017. (PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Noonan for NoontimeSports.com)

By NoontimeSports.com

The City of Boston and Fenway Sports Management (FSM) announced earlier today that Fenway Park would become Frozen Fenway this January, beginning Wednesday, January 4, 2017. Frozen Fenway will conclude Monday, January 16, 2017 and will feature a pair of Hockey East double-headers on January 7 and 14, along with additional college and high school hockey games.

Frozen Fenway will also feature a public skating day for City of Boston residents, too.

“Outdoor hockey is quickly becoming a staple on Boston’s winter sports calendar and we look forward to joining with the Hockey East and the City of Boston to build on that tradition by bringing some of the most accomplished and talented collegiate teams in the country to compete on the ice at Fenway Park,” Boston Red Sox President Sam Kennedy said in a statement.

As noted in the Hockey East release, Boston University will face-off against University of Massachusetts, while Boston College takes on Providence College – both contests will take place Saturday, January 7. One week later – Saturday, January 14, 2017 – Northeastern University will skate against University of New Hampshire, while University of Maine competes against University of Connecticut.

“Hockey East and our schools could not be more excited to take the ice once again at Fenway Park,” said Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said in the conference release. “Once Frozen Fenway 2017 is complete all twelve Hockey East schools will have played an outdoor game at Fenway Park, creating once-in-a-lifetime memories for the players, students, alumni and fans.”

Additional details, including other contests and events will be announced in the coming months. Fans can visit RedSox.com for more information on Frozen Fenway.

Yesterday, the Fenway Sports Management announced the full schedule of hockey games and skating events that will occur at Fenway Park this winter as a part of Citi Frozen Fenway 2014. Both high school and college hockey teams will be participating, but below is the schedule for the Division 1 and 3 games.

There’ll be hockey at Fenway Park next January as eight Hockey East teams will take part in two doubleheaders at Frozen Fenway 2014, according to the league’s press release this afternoon.

“We are excited about the return of hockey to Fenway,” said Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna in a statement. “We are particularly pleased that with these two doubleheaders, all of our men’s programs will have had the opportunity to experience Frozen Fenway, including the University of Notre Dame, our newest member.”

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia.com

The first doubleheader will occur on Saturday, January 4, 2014, as Merrimack College will face-off against Providence College, which will be followed by Notre Dame and Boston College.

UMass Lowell and Northeastern University will skate against each other in the first game the following Saturday, January 11, before Boston University and Maine face-off in the second game.

Boston’s Mayor Tom Menino, who was quoted in the release, expressed his excitement for the return of Frozen Fenway by saying, “Last year, more than 90,000 people came to Fenway Park to watch college or high school hockey or enjoy free public skating.”

Excluding the eight hockey games, there will be two free public skating days for the City of Boston residents, too.

Game times and ticket information for both doubleheaders will be announced at a later date.

BOSTON, MA – For the past few seasons, Northeastern University’s men’s ice hockey teams have always had the potential to win big games.

Against Boston College and Boston University, the Huskies elevate their game to another level. Yet, when it comes to some of the so-called, “middle of the road teams,” they stoop to the opposition’s level.

On Friday evening against the University of Maine, Northeastern had numerous chances to pull ahead for good. Their offense should have recorded three or four goals in the opening period, but instead they squandered numerous chances and wound up tying the last place Black Bears, 1-1.

“At home you want to come up with two points every night, but we’ll take the point tonight and then build on it,” said Northeastern coach Jim Madigan. “It’s our first point in the league in 2013, and [we’ll] build on it as we get ready and prepare for our two opponent’s next weekend.”

Friday’s game should have been a win for the Huskies. They won 41 face-offs, tallied more shots on the power play and Chris Rawlings deflected the puck 42 times between the pipes. Yet, they didn’t win the shots on net battle and couldn’t continue their first period momentum throughout the final two frames. And when Bill Norman notched his first collegiate goal for Maine in the second, Northeastern appeared lost.

Cody Ferriero, though, had three chances on various rushes down the right side of the ice during the third, which would have provided Northeastern with the go-ahead score, as well as a much-needed spark. However, his three shots from in front of the net, right circle and left of the slot were all denied by Martin Ouellette, which kept the game tied.

“I thought they got very good goaltending. I thought he made a couple of nice combination saves there later in the third period,” Madigan said.

The Huskies fired 11 shots during the final 25 minutes, which included overtime, and still couldn’t find the back of their opponent’s cage. Maine rifled 15 shots and really only had one particular chance on the left side of Rawlings net to score the go-ahead strike, but Steven Swavely didn’t deliver.

“We had our chances to take the lead, but I thought Rawlings was very good, both teams fought hard, [and] it could have gone either way,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

If Northeastern is going to make any push toward a spot in the conference’s Final Four at the TD Garden in mid-March, they’ll have to be at their best for their remaining contests and put this match away immediately.

Next weekend, Northeastern will have two tough tasks, as they’ll skate against Boston University on Friday and Boston College on Saturday. Both contests will be on the road, and despite only one conference victory away from Matthews Arena, the Huskies know their chances of postseason success would fade with back-to-back losses.

“It’s all about preparation, week to week, and so we’re not going to change our preparation going into this week. It was a point, we wanted two, [but] as I said, we’ll take the point because they’re hard to come by in this league,” said Madigan.

“When you play BU and then our opponent the next night is a team of Boston, [so] when you play those two teams it is easy to get up for them. It’s been that way since I played here in [1981].”